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Design protection is not always the best back-up plan when there is no other apparent means of protection. The General Court of the European Union taught us this lesson once again in September 2014 (3rd Chamber, Case T-494/12).

Backlogs and delay in the examination and grant of patents have been commonplace in India for several years now. In 2013 Nitto Denko, a patent applicant facing significant delays in the registration of its patents, approached the Delhi High Court on the issue of delayed patent examination. As per Rule 24B of the Patent Rules, 2003, the first examination report (FER) should be sent to the applicant within six months from the date of request of examination or six months from date of publication whichever is later. This time-frame is almost never adhered to by the Patent Office because of a shortage of human resources.

The Indonesian Trade Mark Law No 15/2001 regulates that an owner of an unregistered mark may file a lawsuit for cancellation against a registered mark at the Commercial Court after filing a registration at the Directorate General of Intellectual Property Rights (DGIPR).

A Greek entity registered in its name the domain name www.alibaba.info. Alibaba, the globally well-known e-commerce Chinese company filed a complaint against the above-mentioned domain name holder on the basis of UDRP rules before the Asian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Center. This action failed.

More than 2,000 three-dimensional trade marks have been registered since April 1 1997 when the registration of such marks became possible. Among them were Coca-Cola's bottle and Jean Paul Gaultier's perfume bottle. Now the Tokyo District Court has made the first decision on whether a three-dimensional trade mark was infringed.

The Malaysian High Court recently decided in the case of Syarikat Duasama Sdn Bhd v Chevron Malaysia Limited that the concept of landlord liability may not be recognised to confer liability on owners of premises where infringing activities are said to have taken place.

A constitutional action was filed by an innovator pharmaceutical company before a district court against COFEPRIS, contesting the granting of a marketing authorisation for a generic medicine. This action was essentially based on: (1) the lack of opportunity for the title holder to be heard during the prosecution of the marketing authorisation application; (2) the need to have knowledge about the contents of the generic company's application and (3) the unconstitutionality of the Linkage Regulation as it does not allow a patent owner to have knowledge of a potential violation of the patent linkage system in the marketing authorisations of generics.

In a recent decision (first instance patent court, The Hague, March 4 2015: Occlutech Int AB v AGA Medical Corp) the court explained the rules for presenting evidence of public prior use before the Dutch court in nullity arguments.

Forty three tukutuku panels (a distinctive art form of the Māori people of New Zealand), woven by artists from around the country, now hang in the United Nations headquarters in New York.

On February 6 2015, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued Memorandum Circular No 2015-003 reiterating the FDA's disallowance of the phrase "No Approved Therapeutic Claim" in any form of advertisement, promotion, sponsorship activities or materials concerning food/dietary supplements, as embodied in FDA Administrative Order No 2010-008.